Politico Failed to Disclose Lobbying Work of Heritage Foundation Critics

Steve LaTourette, John Feehery and Brian Walsh toiled in the halls of Congress for years before cashing in for lucrative jobs in Washington’s burgeoning public affairs and lobbying industry.

Today, the three Republicans are at the forefront of the GOP establishment’s clash with conservatives and the Tea Party. They are also among the most quoted critics of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America, each figuring prominently in a story published this week by Politico Magazine, “Is Jim DeMint the Most Hated Man in Washington?”

Jim DeMint (Credit: David Hills)

The 2,500-word story by Pema Levy, a Washington correspondent for Newsweek, described these critics in connection to their former jobs. The story failed to acknowledge that they often are paid to argue against Heritage’s positions on policy issues.

Here’s how Levy described each:

LaTourette as “a friend and political ally of the [House] speaker’s” and “a moderate who now runs the Republican Main Street Partnership, a policy shop that associates itself with the ‘governing wing of the Republican Party.’ ”

Feehery as “a veteran Capitol Hill aide who worked for the Republican House leadership.”

Walsh as a “Republican consultant … who spent the 2010 and 2012 cycles working to elect a Republican Senate majority at the National Republican Senatorial Committee” and “publicly scolded DeMint and Tea Party groups over their shutdown strategy this past summer.”

On policy issues such as immigration reform, the men are at odds with Heritage and Heritage Action. On others, like the Internet sales tax and the wind production tax credit, they have been stymied in their pursuit of those policy proposals.